March 07, 2013

Autumn

We have been in Buenos Aires just over two months. We arrived at the height of summer. Temperatures approached forty degrees and we saw the sun for over fourteen hours each day. The nights were hot and humid. It is now cooler, especially in the evenings. The days are still hot enough; around twenty-five. Daylight hours have shortened; we now get just under thirteen hours of sun, and even though BA days are noticeably shorter, they are much better than the four hours, or less, of indirect sunlight we saw during our last few weeks in the Yukon just a few months ago.

Our street looks much the same as when we arrived, though there is a new crispness in the morning air and a dustiness to the sky. Some trees are shedding leaves, but not significantly, and we don't see much colour in the leaves. Still, it feels and smells like fall.

School started last week. Where once the school playgrounds were empty and the bells silent, they are full again. The distinctive orange school buses, in a variety of sizes and styles and called escolares, run throughout the city. It reminds me of the first few days after Labour Day in Canada.

Autumn: the shadows, the dusty fragrance, the early evenings; that time between summer and winter. When we return to Canada in a few weeks, we will have seen two autumns in six months. And we will enjoy yet another six months later.